RCMP report on murdered, missing women not Inuit-specific: Pauktuutit

Pauktuutit not ready to support idea of national inquiry

SARAH ROGERS

Students from the Nunavut Sinuniksavut program in Ottawa took part in a March vigil held to mark the homicide of Loretta Saunders, an Inuk woman from Labrador and show support for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. (PHOTO COURTESY OF NS)

Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada says they’re concerned about the absence of Inuit-specific data in a recent report released by the RCMP on missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.

A new RCMP study, released May 16, confirms that aboriginal women in Canada suffer much higher rates of violent crime than non-aboriginals.

It’s not clear how many of those are Inuit, but the report noted there were 20 female victims of homicide reported in Nunavut over that period, all of whom were aboriginal.

And that lack of information is problematic, said Pauktuutit president Rebecca Kudloo.

“Violence against women has been one of our top priorities for the last 30 years,” Kudloo said. “We want immediate action in the form of a national action plan to address Inuit priorities.”

In 2011, Statistics Canada estimated Canada’s Aboriginal population at about 1.4 million, or 4.3 per cent of the total Canadian population.

Canada’s Inuit, according to Statistics Canada, stood in 2011 at 59,445 people: 4.2 per cent of Canada’s Aboriginal population and 0.2 per cent of Canada’s population.

While the RCMP report highlights certain risk factors of murdered aboriginal females, like employment status, use of intoxicants and involvement in the sex trade, Kudloo said the report fails to identify the vulnerabilities that are unique to Inuit communities.

Those risk factors include the housing crisis, high suicide rates and unresolved past traumas, “all issues that require specialised support that just isn’t available in the Inuit Nunangat,” she said.

Kudloo said the RCMP report responds to one of Pauktuutit’s main recommendations: that family violence prevention needs to be made a priority for action, particularly in communities with high rates of violence.